


Glad You're Here

by kaeorin



Series: Loki's Lullabies [33]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Netflix and Chill, Reader-Insert, Sick Character, Sickfic, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23885566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaeorin/pseuds/kaeorin
Summary: While recuperating from a cold, you venture out into the Tower and wind up with an unlikely companion.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Reader
Series: Loki's Lullabies [33]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678240
Comments: 12
Kudos: 253





	Glad You're Here

**Author's Note:**

> It's _just_ a cold! I know I've been writing a ton of quarantine fics, but I'm not going to put the actual COVID-19 into a fic! That feels cheap! This is just a standard sickfic, I promise!

After three long days of holing yourself up in your room so as not to spread your Death Plague to the others in the Tower, you couldn’t stand it any longer. You were miserable, of course: the sinuses in your face seemed to be packed not just with mucous and pressure but also the vengeful rage of some old and forgotten god. There was a dull ache in your head—pretty much everywhere, really—never quite bad enough on its own to make you drag yourself out of bed to take a painkiller, but always just bad enough to make you feel like crap. You’d spent the last three days more or less wallowing in bed, scrolling through your phone on occasion, at least until the light from the screen made you put it down again. You’d tried to read for a while—an actual book—but you found that it was hard to focus. Unsure how much of that was your modern-day attention span and how much was the invisible quinjet that was parked on your neck and shoulders, you’d given that up pretty quickly.

When you woke up on the fourth day, there was suddenly a glimmer of...something that hadn’t been there before. You still didn’t feel well, obviously, but it was almost like you could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe the overall Suck of this sickness was starting to lessen. By the time you’d showered and dressed in a fresh set of lounging-around clothes, you almost felt somewhere approaching almost-normal. 

You still hung back in your room most of the day. The world could be just fine with someone like you out of commission, but if you were still contagious and infected Tony or Nat? Forget about it. But sometime in the early afternoon, you ventured out into the kitchen. Wanda—or _someone_ —had been very sweetly bringing you small meals the last few days, and leaving them on a tray outside your door, but you wanted a cup of tea. So you padded into the kitchen and set about that familiar old routine. You kept an ear out as you worked so someone couldn’t sneak up on you and accidentally expose themselves to your germs, but things were quiet. You poured water over the tea in your mug and immediately wrapped your hands around it. You hadn’t had a fever in days, but you were feeling a little chilly right now. The heat felt nice.

“You’re alive.” The voice in the doorway was familiar, of course, but that didn’t stop you from flinching hard at the unexpected sound. Some of the tea splashed out onto your hands and you swore, wiping them fiercely on the sides of your legs. Loki was at your side immediately, and took your hands in his as though to inspect the burns. His touch felt cool, soothing as he smoothed his fingers over the angry red blotches on your hands. “Or perhaps you’re not. It’s never that easy to sneak up on you.” You might have expected him to sound amused, or smug, at having surprised you so badly, but if anything, he sounded apologetic.

“I guess I was a little distracted.” This was embarrassing, even if it did feel nice, the way his fingers were moving against your skin. You forced the thought away but couldn’t quite bring yourself to pull your hands back. “And, you know, being _sick_ and all, I guess my hearing isn’t quite what it normally is.” You looked up, making your best attempt to fix him with a playful glare. But his face was soft, even concerned, and the novelty of that seemed to make your features freeze. 

Loki was beautiful. That wasn’t anything new, and it certainly wasn’t anything he didn’t already know. Sometimes he caught you staring, which kind of sucked, but he never said anything about it. Probably he knew the kind of effect he had on Midgardians, and was used to it. Surely you were not the first human, nor the last, to see his face and want to touch it. To want to run your fingers through his hair. To whisk him away from the past and the family in Thor’s stories and keep him safe and flooded with adoration he so badly deserved. 

Anyway, sometimes you looked at him only to realize that he was already looking at you with a certain sharpness in his eyes, and it was nice. 

“I’m glad to see you up and around.” He kept his voice low, like he didn’t want anyone else to overhear. You tucked this moment away, locking it safely in your memory so you could metaphorically giggle over it later when you were hidden away again. He was still holding your hands, but his fingers had gone still. You pulled your hands away before you could really think about it or decide that you didn’t want to pull your hands away.

“I might still be contagious,” you said, feeling both awkward and bereft. Already you missed his touch. “You probably shouldn’t touch me. I really don’t want to get you sick.” You would have stepped away from him, if your back weren’t pressed against the counter behind you. He was standing so close. 

He just laughed and shook his head. “You should have more faith in me, darling. Midgardian germs are no match for me.” He puffed his chest out a little. The gesture was intensely reminiscent of Thor, and the strangeness of seeing _Loki_ do something like _that_ made you duck your head and laugh a little. Without thinking about it, you reached out to pat his chest. He was solid beneath your touch, which shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was. Of course he was solid. He was real, wasn’t he? Still, something about it distracted you, and you let your touch linger there on his chest. 

He pressed his hand to the back of yours, keeping it there even if you wanted to pull away. You started to apologize, but cut yourself off before you could get too far. It was clear that he didn’t mind you touching him. Apologizing for this would only make things weirder. Still feeling rather uncertain, you ventured a look up at his face. His brows were heavy as he studied your face. You did your best to arrange your features into a smile, but he did not follow your lead.

“I forgot how nice it was to have contact with other people,” you mumbled. “I’ve been hidden away for three days now, and you’re the first person I’ve seen.” Maybe it was your way of trying to explain yourself. If you were a little bit off-kilter, if you were acting kind of strange, surely it was only because of your isolation and your illness, and not because of your big obvious crush on the Asgardian prince. But you thought back to all that you’d heard about him and all that you’d heard Thor say to him and stepped just a little bit closer to him. “I’m glad you’re here.” 

He didn’t speak as he pulled your hand away from his chest, then brought it up to his mouth so he could kiss your knuckles. It was a heady sight, the way his lips curled into a smile even as he pressed them against your skin. Your brain told you to pull away so you didn’t risk rubbing germs onto his lips, but you couldn’t. He bowed a little as he dropped his hand to his side, but didn’t let go of yours. “No one has ever said that to me.” The quirk of his eyebrows told you he was trying to make light of the situation, but the weight of his words made you feel a little queasy. 

“I’m sorry.” You made a mental note, then, to make an effort to say that to him more often. Every day, even. How many ways could you try to express basic happiness about his existence before you started to repeat yourself? The possibilities felt endless. 

“Don’t worry about it. I have all that I need.” Surely your eyes were playing tricks on you: his cheeks looked a little pinkish. Had you made him blush? You tried not to smile even as he gestured towards your mug on the counter behind you. “Get your tea. Are you hungry? I’d like you to join me in the sitting room. I think I’ve heard Stark refer to something called ‘Netflix and chill’?”

Laughter bubbled out of you, and now it was surely your turn to blush. You blew on the surface of your tea and took a careful sip so you wouldn’t have to look at Loki’s face. “Uh...I’ll definitely join you, but be careful with that phrase. For most people, it tends to mean...something else.” You didn’t really want to reveal to him that he’d just accidentally propositioned you for sex. Already you could imagine how his face would fall, how he’d laugh at the very idea. 

He did laugh, but quietly, maybe even nervously, even as led you into the living room. You let yourself sit a little bit closer to him than you ordinarily would, and you told yourself it was because you were still a little chilly. He draped an arm around your shoulders to pull you in still closer as he worked the remote to get things situation. He felt so nice. You curled into him, giving in entirely to your desire for the closeness, and felt him press his lips to your temple. “Netflix for now, then,” he murmured against your skin. “Perhaps we’ll discuss the rest when you’re feeling better.”

Your heart thudded wildly in your chest.


End file.
